Google readies App Connector for BlackBerry devices

Tighter integration with BlackBerry hardware and Google services may be coming in the near future. Google has been working on new software aimed at BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which they are dubbing Google Apps Connector. The suite will allow users to access Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts straight from the device's built-in software apps, synchronizing everything so that an email message marked as read on the BlackBerry, for example, will show that way on Gmail and vice-versa. This removes the need for third-party programs, such as how Gmail currently works on BlackBerry devices.

The service will be included with the Premier and Education editions of Google Apps, starting sometime in July. According to the company, Google Apps Connector is designed to ease the transition from internally-hosted tools like Microsoft Exchange to their less expensive Google Apps alternative.

The search giant does have other concerns aside from getting businesses to switch. They also have to worry about service availability. The more a company comes to rely on cloud-based services, the more critical ensuring those services are available around the clock becomes. Google has suffered more than a few public outages in the past year, and while most of them were solved quickly, it's not something that people on the clock want to worry about.